


Risk Assessment

by Sandrine Shaw (Sandrine)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Bickering, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-14
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-26 08:45:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4998274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandrine/pseuds/Sandrine%20Shaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This isn't Sheppard's <i>I'm totally impressed even though I refuse to acknowledge it</i> face. It's not even the <i>You're talking too much, so get to the point</i> face. It's more like the <i>For such an incredibly smart person, you can be incredibly stupid</i> face, the one that usually comes with a slap against his head.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Risk Assessment

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written SGA in ages, but then I did a drabble meme on LiveJournal and was asked for McKay with the prompt “YOU DID WHAT?!” and that one just screamed McShep to me...

 

"You did _what_?" 

The Colonel looks upset. Rodney doesn't understand why Sheppard would be be upset instead of appreciating his genius. 

"What's wrong with you today? You're not usually this slow on the uptake. I rerouted the power so that the nice friendly natives can use their primitive appliances without needing two ZPMs, thus freeing up one that we can doubtless put to better use. It wasn't even that hard. Well, if you knew what you were doing, which admittedly 99.999 percent of the scientists I know don't, so it doesn't really surprise me that no one solved this issue before. But all I had to do was crawl inside the whatchamacallit and —"

"McKay." Rodney frowns, because this isn't Sheppard's _I'm totally impressed even though I refuse to acknowledge it_ face. It's not even the _You're talking too much, so get to the point_ face. It's more like the _For such an incredibly smart person, you can be incredibly stupid_ face, the one that usually comes with a slap against his head, and he's honestly not sure what he's done to earn it this time. "You crawled inside a narrow metal chute of a ZPM-powered alien machine of which we don't even know what it does. Do you not see the problem with that?"

Rodney wonders if that's a trick question. It has to be a trick question. "Um. No?"

It may have been the wrong answer, because Sheppard gets even more worked up. He looks like he's about to burst a blood vessel. "You could have been killed, Rodney. You didn't even bother to check if the machine had any in-built defense mechanisms. It could have fried you or done God knows what else to you."

Oh. That. Rodney shrugs. "Well, yes, but we needed the ZPM, so it was an acceptable risk."

The words have barely left his mouth when he's backed against the nearest wall and Sheppard gets in his face, eyes blazing with anger. "Listen to me, Rodney, and listen well. Your potential death isn't in any way _acceptable_ or a risk I'm willing to take, ZPM or not. Am I making myself clear?"

Rodney wants to explain that this is unfair, that Sheppard takes stupid risks and goes on suicide missions and almost gets himself killed every other day and twice on a Sunday, but Sheppard is standing too close and his breath is hot against Rodney's cheek and their bodies are pressed together in a way that should be threatening but is in fact strangely intimate, and Rodney for once has no words at all.

"Do you. Understand. What I'm saying?" Sheppard repeats quietly, and Rodney's eyes keep flickering from the intensity of his gaze that he begins to understand is not quite anger to the hard line of his mouth, lips bitten bloody.

He nods numbly. "Yes, sure. Absolutely," he says, even though he's not sure he understands at all.

End


End file.
